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‘Oftentimes, you really want to know whether you just felt a small earthquake nearby, or a larger earthquake farther away.

'The map will show areas that shook with various intensities (known as a shakemap), so you’ll be able to quickly assess the reach of the earthquake as well as its epicentre.’

This data from the USGS is typically online within seconds, according to TechCrunch, or minutes if the quake occurs in California.

A quick search can now pull up data on the magnitude and reach of the quake, and offer tips on what you should do next. The firm hopes this will help people to stay safe and informed when an earthquake strikes

If it happens in a different part of the world, however, it may take up to 30 minutes for the information to become public.

The search results will also explain how you can stay safe in damaged buildings, and during potential aftershocks.

Aftershocks can occur hours or even days after the original quake, and Google says it will provide information on other recent earthquakes to help you put this into context.

The firm hopes this will help people to stay safe and informed when an earthquake strikes.

In the blog post, Google says: ‘We hope that by displaying this result directly in Search, people will have fast and easy access to the information they need to stay safe in the face of an earthquake.’

PLANS FOR THE 'BIG ONE'

Federal, state and military officials have been working together to draft plans to be followed when the 'Big One' happens.

These contingency plans reflect deep anxiety about the potential gravity of the looming disaster: upward of 14,000 people dead in the worst-case scenarios, 30,000 injured, thousands left homeless and the region's economy setback for years, if not decades.

Julian Lozos, an assistant geophysics professor at California State University, claimed there is a strong chance this quake will coincide with one along the adjacent San Jacinto fault line, which runs through more heavily-populated cities. Both fault lines are shown above

As a response, what planners envision is a deployment of civilian and military personnel and equipment that would eclipse the response to any natural disaster that has occurred so far in the US.

There would be waves of cargo planes, helicopters and ships, as well as tens of thousands of soldiers, emergency officials, mortuary teams, police officers, firefighters, engineers, medical personnel and other specialists.

'The response will be orders of magnitude larger than Hurricane Katrina or Super Storm Sandy,' said Lt. Col. Clayton Braun of the Washington State Army National Guard.

This haunting photograph shows people walking through rubble in San Francisco on 18 April 1906. Many people are worried that the city and LA, for example, would look like this again due to a massive quake